東方プロジェクト二次小説・オリジナル小説サイト
Chapter 2:Double Dealing Character

—4—

We had been told to be extra careful. Youkai outside the walls of the village had become unpredictable and aggressive. I didn't think sitting in our office in the middle of the village would have counted as risky behavior though. No one could have expected that two girls would have burst through our door and tied us up without any provocation.

Now, as the two girls looked down on us as we lay on the floor of our own office, I could only look at the musical instruments they were carrying and assume who they might be. While I may not be the great detective my partner is, from their conversation and the objects that looked like a biwa and a koto beside each of them, the two must have been the tsukumogami of the same instruments that we had been looking for.

In my experience, the newborn tsukumogami I had seen in the past had looked more like objects that had sprouted tiny arms and legs than humans. For these tsukumogami to look so human-like seemed odd if they had really only been born in the last two weeks or so.

"This is starting to feel like a proper hard-boiled detective story."

"How can you be so carefree about this Renko? They said they're going to give us to someone as a gift."

"Which means they're not going to eat us. That means we're better off than we were when Yamame captured us in the Underworld, and she's our friend now, right? Do tsukumogami even eat humans?"

I really wish Renko wouldn't ask things like that so carelessly. The two girls who had invaded our home were watching us with a mixture of incredulity and suspicion. As Renko and I looked back up at them, the one who had attacked me turned to the one with the biwa and spoke.

"I don't think they're afraid of us at all, sister."

"It's because you're not very scary for a youkai, Yatsuhashi. You need to mature a little and make yourself more imposing."

"I don’t want to hear that from you, we were born at the same time!"

The girl speaking was fairly tall, with a willowy build and short brown hair held back with a pink headband. She was wearing a ruffled white blouse with a black skirt that seemed to have some sort of ridges or or wire wrapped laterally around it in bands. Her older sister had long purple hair tied back and divided into two ponytails and wore a simple golden brown dress with long white sleeves. She had the lower half of a biwa attached to her left wrist with a golden chain.

They both glared at us unhappily for a moment and then the one with the biwa stepped forward and crouched down in front us. "Hello humans. We're youkai. You're being attacked by youkai right now, okay?"

"Oh, I understand," Renko said cheerily. "Specifically, you're tsukumogami, aren't you? You're a biwa and I'm guessing your sister is a koto? My name's Usami Renko. I'm the detective who was looking for you two and this is my partner, Merry. What are your names?"

"I’m Tsukumo Benben. That’s my younger sister, Yatsuhashi."

"Yeah, I’m the little sister. Why are you introducing yourself? Aren't you supposed to be screaming?"

"If your intention had been to kill or eat us then you've had ample opportunity to do so already. The fact that you tied us up suggests to me that you have some use for us and there’s no need to panic."

Renko made it sound perfectly logical but I don't think most people would react that way to this situation. Granted, I wasn't exactly screaming my head off at the moment either. I blame Renko, who is clearly missing a part of her brain, for dulling my sense of crisis through repeated exposure.

Benben rose back up and twisted her head uncertainly as she looked at her sister. "Well of course we're not going to eat you. We're tools, not savages. But we're going to bring you to meet our new master!" Benben declared.

"That’s right! We’re going to offer you two up as gifts! And then whoever gave us all of this power will eat you! Maybe!" As threats go it was rather vague.

Renko chuckled briefly. "Hah, I think I understand what's happening here. By 'new master' you're talking about the origin of the phenomenon that Mamizou had mentioned to us. The source of whatever power has been creating a bunch of new tsukumogami. You're hoping to find them and ask them for even more power, is that it? And then you noticed us looking into your case and decided to test your strength as newborn youkai against us, right?"

"Sister what's this girl's deal? Do you think she's a satori?"

"No, she seems like just a normal human."

"I'm definitely just a human." Renko declared, still grinning.

"Just not a normal one," I added. Renko turned to smile at me.

"If you'll forgive me for saying so, it seems like you two don't actually know what the source of the power that created you is," Renko continued. "Is that correct?"

"...Well no, not exactly," Benben admitted. "But I'm pretty sure I'd know it if I saw it. We didn't attack you to test our strength though. If we wanted to test our strength we would have fought someone stronger."

"So then since you're so powerful, why bother attacking and restraining two harmless humans?"

"Because this is a revolution!" Yatsuhashi blurted after a brief instant of looking uncertain.

"The era in which humans subjugate tools to use as they please has ended! From now on, we tools will be in command and you humans will be ours to use! Flip the script! It's a reverse hierarchy from now on!"

"That's right! You will be the first sacrifices to the new order, human. You should be honored to witness the new era of our dominance over mankind!"

"Oh, wow! Looking cool, big sister!"

"Say it like you mean it. It's a little sister's job to look up to her big sister."

"I don't think being a big sister automatically entitles you to my respect! In fact, the big sister is supposed to spoil the little sister, right?"

"Your image of what sisters are like is all messed up. If you want your big sister to spoil you then you have to praise her. Now, try again."

Yatsuhashi sighed dramatically then looked up at her sister and clasped her hands in front of her excitedly. "Oh sister, you're so cool! I love you!"

"Enh, that doesn't really suit you. Try again."

"I love you big sister! Marry me!"

"No, no, that's dumb, rejected."

"I'll follow you anywhere, sister! I want to be with you everyday for the rest of my life!"

"That's wrong too!"

"Hmph. You know, you’re making it really hard to play the role of a cute younger sister."

"Don't make up a weird character, just praise me with your honest feelings."

"Well then be a big sister who deserves honest praise!"

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

"Be the sort of big sister who spoils her little sister!"

"Then be the sort of cute little sister who deserves spoiling!"

"How can I be cute if I don't have an admirable big sister to praise?"

It was one of the most bizarre sibling arguments I had ever witnessed. Though from the sound of things these two girls weren't actually sisters either. I suppose the tsukumogami of two different instruments couldn't really be related, but then again the Prismrivers were poltergeists bound to three completely different instruments and they claimed to be sisters as well. While I was thinking about such trivial nonsense, Benben turned back to address us.

"Anyway, we're scary youkai, and you're at our mercy, so be afraid, humans!"

"I see, yes, that's quite understandable." Renko said with a nod, trying hard to suppress her grin.

"Right. It's good that you understand."

"I understand you and Yatsuhashi are very close. Let's see some more flirting there, you were doing well."

"That's not what I meant!" Benben shouted. The last thing we needed was for Renko to try to make herself a part of their comedy duo.

"Merry, we're close too and I don't want to lose out to them on the flirting front. Why don't you try calling me 'big sister'?"

"You're not my sister, Renko. I'm not doing this."

"Oh, do you want to be the big sister then, Merry?"

"I'd rather have Sanae be here at the moment."

"It’s a shame the god-phone is too far away for Lady Kanako to hear us."

"Please don’t refer to the shrine as a god-phone, Renko."

Unfortunately for us the small shrine to Kanako that Sanae had built was outside of our office. There'd be no way she could hear what was happening to us right now. Ran had also said she generally didn't watch us while we were within the walls of the village, not that she had ever come to our rescue when we were being attacked by a youkai in the past.

"You two really have no sense of crisis do you?" Yatsuhashi asked, looking bewildered. I would call that a fair assessment, personally.

"All jokes aside..." Renko began, schooling her expression into a more focused mask as she spoke. "Let's be serious for a moment. What you two are really hoping to do is to locate the master of whatever power made you two into tsukumogami, right?"

"Well... Um..." Benben eyed Renko suspiciously.

"In that case, why not hire the Hifuu Detective Agency to find the source of the power for you?"

The two girls looked first at each other and then back to Renko with expressions of confusion.


—5—


"Hire? Detective Agency? What do you mean?" Yatsuhashi asked, blinking in surprise. Beside her, Benben was frowning at Renko as well.

"Look. Do you two know anything about the source of your power?"

"Well no, not yet, But—"

Renko flashed me a grin then turned back to the two sisters.

"Well it just so happens that Merry here is a very special human. Her eyes work as a high-performance anomaly radar capable of finding any sort of hidden or mysterious thing."

"Renko, I'm not an anomaly radar!!"

"Don't be so humble, Merry. You have a well-established track record."

"That's not a record I ever wanted to have."

"Well regardless of that, it's an ability that could help these two girls here, isn't it? Besides, carrying the two of us around as prizes would be a hassle. Instead why not let us go and we'll join you in your search. We’re interested to see what's going on with this whole situation anyway."

The two sisters glanced at one another.

"What do you think, big sis? Should we trust them?"

"What they’re saying is almost too ridiculous to be a lie, and it doesn’t work as an excuse to just run away, so maybe they’re telling the truth."

"They really don’t look very strong though. Do you think they could be useful?"

"You won't know how useful we are unless you give it a shot, right? Isn't the idea of using humans like us as tools for your own aims exactly the sort of turnabout you were looking for?"

"Oh! Yeah! It’s the revolution in action! Let’s do it!"

They both nodded before turning to face us. Both girls raised their hands and all at once the red cords that had bound us unwound from our bodies and flew across the room. Some of them laid themselves across Benben's biwa, stretching tautly over the body of the instrument even though there was nothing holding them in place. The rest of the strings rushed toward Yatsuhashi's koto and settled into place. A moment later the entire instrument bent and wrapped itself around her skirt, melding into it and then disappearing altogether so that only the red strings were left, laying on the top of the ridges wound around her hips. Apparently that's where she normally kept it, but I couldn't imagine how that worked.

We were finally free to stretch out and stand up. I rose up and flexed my fingers. I couldn't help but notice I now had tatami-shaped hatch marks on my cheek from where I had been laying on the floor. Good grief.

"So can I take the fact that you're releasing us to mean that you'd like to hire us?" Renko asked, still grinning as she stood up.

"You two are still our hostages. We’re just putting you to work."

"Fair enough, I suppose. Either way, that means the Hifuu Detective Agency is on the case now. As your tools, we'll help you find the source of this mysterious power."

We did it, sister!" Yatsuhashi exclaimed. "From now on this is the era of tools using humans instead of the other way around. Isn't this great?" she leaped joyously into the air.

Benben nodded, seeming to be trying to do her best to look dignified and collected.

I wasn't about to say anything of course, but it seemed to me that if anything the both of them had just more or less volunteered to serve Renko's curiosity, helping her discover the origin of whatever force had awakened them.

In the end, the two tsukumogami were still being used as tools.

—

"Eh? It's getting late. You want to go flying now? What for?" Genji asked.

"We're going looking for the source of a mysterious power tonight, Genji."

"Oh? Is that why wild youkai have been more aggressive lately? I suppose those two tsukumogami behind you are also related to this? Well alright, master, but I wish you'd give some thought to my poor, tired, old bones."

Genji grumbled some more but dutifully climbed out of the pond and rose into the air while I tied our riding cushions onto him. As the sun began to dip behind the horizon, we rose into the sky over the village and set out with Benben and Yatsuhashi flying close behind us.

"Alright, human. Do your thing. Show us the way to the source of this power," Yatsuhashi commanded from behind us.

"Calm down, Yatsu, Merry will need to spot a trail to follow first."

"Who's Yatsu?"

"It's a nickname."

"Sister, she gave me a weird name. Are you sure letting them lead us around is a good idea?"

"Don’t worry about it? As long as we make sure they don’t escape and we can use them however we like."

As bad as it had been having Renko use me as a tool, this was worse. I sighed to myself and scanned over the village, picking out the shapes of familiar landmarks in the dark. It was easy enough to tell where we were, but there was no sign of anything unusual that my eyes could detect.

"Hmmm, I don't really see anything," I muttered.

"Look harder. We've become enormously powerful tsukumogami. There must be something responsible for giving weaker youkai all of this power."

"If there really is a source to this power and it's making all of the roaming youkai stronger and more aggressive..." Renko said thoughtfully. I could see where her mind was going, but I didn’t like the implications.

"...Then it must be located where the youkai are the most dangerous, is that what you're thinking?"

"That’s right."

"Renko can we, for once, not head straight for the most dangerous place in sight?"

"We'll be fine, Merry. We've already been to the Underworld and Makai, whatever we find here isn't going to be any worse than any of those places."

What an attitude. It's a miracle either of us was still alive. Trying to talk reason into someone who had had as many lucky breaks as she has was a fool's errand, unfortunately.

"Now," Renko continued, cradling her chin between thumb and forefinger as she looked about. "What's the most dangerous place in Gensokyo?"

"Youkai mountain?"

"That's tengu territory though," Renko countered. "I don’t think there would be many weak youkai roaming around there."

"What about the Bamboo Forest of The Lost then?" I suggested.

"Oh, maybe. If all of the youkai rabbits at Eientei have been affected then it's probably turned into some sort of fluffy, terrifying hellscape by now."

Actually, now that I thought about it, I wondered if Imaizumi Kagerou was alright? While werewolves like her were the sort of famous monsters everyone knows of, I'm not sure if they would really be considered 'powerful' creatures in a place like Gensokyo. Since she lived in the bamboo forest, she might actually be quite low on the power scale as youkai go.

We actually knew plenty of youkai who must be pretty far down on Gensokyo's power scale, now that I thought about it. Even more if fairies or gods could be counted.

"I think we'd be better off going somewhere wild, where there isn't any one in charge. The Forest of Magic, maybe, or possibly Muenzuka." Renko mused.

It was true that Muenzuka was generally regarded as a pretty dangerous place filled with lots of roaming youkai. Well, either way, both it and the Forest of Magic were to the west of here, so we ought to head in that direction, I suppose. Heading east would also eventually bring us to the Hakurei Shrine, so whatever was causing this was likely as far away from there as possible.

That said, we had been out to Muenzuka with Kokoro just last summer while looking for her missing mask of hope. Were we really going to start combing over that place again? And this time without even really knowing what we were looking for? Well I guess that's the sort of work that would typically be expected of a detective agency, at least.

"Let's start by heading for the Forest of Magic," Renko declared decisively.

I leaned closer and whispered to Renko. "Won't there be a problem if Marisa sees these two?"

"Hmm, maybe. These two do seem like the sort that might start a fight..."

"Hey, quit being sneaky! What are you two whispering about?" Yatsuhashi yelled from behind us.

Renko quickly whispered one more thing before leaning away. "Reimu or Marisa are probably bound to find us before too long. For now let's gather information. We can take them to Kourindou or to go see Alice."

I sighed and leaned back as Renko turned Genji and steered us towards the west, wondering what else this night would have in store for me.


—6—


And so we came to the edge of the Forest of Magic with the two tsukumogami sisters in tow. By now the sun had almost completely set and long shadows stretched outward from the edge of the forest. I couldn't help but feel like this was a bad time of day to be beginning an investigation.

"If a bunch of Rinnosuke's goods have turned into tsukumogami, do you think he might sell them to us at a discount?" I asked as we approached.

"Somehow I doubt he'd be too surprised if that happened. How's it look though, Merry? You see anything yet?"

"No, nothing unusual yet."

"Is this human actually useful or not?" Yatsuhashi asked, looking dissatisfied. I didn't think that was particularly fair. I couldn't be expected to find something if there was nothing there to find. I sighed and redoubled my efforts, looking all around us for anything out of the ordinary.

My eyes suddenly picked out the shape of a humanoid figure standing on the path leading into the forest. I couldn't make out any details on the figure at this distance and in this gloom, but to be standing as still as a statue on the edge of the Forest of Magic at this hour was a little disconcerting. It couldn't have been anyone from the village, certainly.

"Hey Renko, there's someone over there, on the path into the forest."

"Huh? Oh yeah. Is that a person? Let's go say 'hi.'"

"What if it's a youkai? They'll probably attack you, Renko."

"If that happens we can rely on the Tsukumo sisters to protect us."

"We're under no obligation to protect you. Right, sister?"

"Yup!"

"Seriously?" Renko sighed and let her shoulders droop.

"What should we do, master?" Genji asked from beneath us.

"Well, let's start by getting a little closer."

"Alright." Genji responded morosely but swooped lower, bringing us close enough for Renko to shout at the person standing on the path leading into the forest.

"Is that a Jizo statue?"

"It looks like it. It even has a hat."

The figure on the road definitely had the general rounded outline of a Jizo statue wearing a large, conical hat, but it was taller than I would expect one to be. Why would an adult-sized Jizo statue randomly show up? That's the sort of creepy detail you'd expect to find in a ghost story. I was more than a little surprised when the Jizo statue suddenly moved. Not in a particularly frightening way or anything, but I think I may have gasped slightly when the hat tilted to reveal the face of the youkai beneath its brim.

"Oh, it's a girl. Do you think she's the tsukumogami of a Jizo statue, Renko?"

"Maybe. Do you two want to go talk to her, tsukumogami to tsukumogami?"

The two sisters looked at each other. Before either of them could respond, the Jizo-looking girl standing in the middle of the road called out to us.

"Who's there?"

Well if she was calling out to us, it would only be polite to introduce ourselves. She certainly didn’t look like she was about to attack us. We decided to land in front of her with the Tsukumo sisters following behind us.

She was a girl about as tall as Renko, with long, dull black hair divided into a pair of braids. She was wearing a heavy, warm-looking grey dress with a red stole that definitely called to mind a Jizo's bib, topped off by a conical woven straw hat. Even her earlobes were long and dangling like those of the statues. If she wasn't a living Jizo statue, she was doing her best impression of one.

"Good evening, Miss," Renko said as we landed. "Might I guess that your name is 'Jizo?'"

"Are you two humans? You were riding on the back of a turtle. Should I guess that your name is Urashima Taro then?"

"Well I don't have a box containing hundreds of stored years on me, so I guess not. My name is Usami Renko. This is my partner, Merry. We're both from the human village. The turtle's name is Genji, and these two tsukumogami instruments following behind me are the Tsukumo sisters, Benben and Yatsuhashi." Renko said, gesturing to us each in turn. "What's your name?"

The girl took a step back into the forest, flinching away slightly from Renko's Cheshire grin. "What are humans doing riding a flying turtle and hanging around with tsukumogami near the Forest of Magic at night? It's dangerous here, roaming youkai have been attacking everyone lately."

"That's actually why we're here. We're trying to find out what's causing the sudden increase in aggression among weaker youkai."

"...Oh! Are you two incident-resolvers then? Like Marisa?" It was a question neither of us had expected to hear.

"No, we're not, but we're friends of hers. Do you know Marisa too?"

"She's an acquaintance. How do you know her?"

"We've been friends for years. She's never mentioned knowing a tsukumogami Jizo though."

"...I'm Yatadera Narumi. Marisa calls me Naruko. For the record, she never mentioned that she knew a pair of humans who ride turtles and fly around at night with tsukumogami either."

"Well this state of affairs isn't exactly typical for us. At least not the part with the tsukumogami. So what brings you to a place like this, Narumi?"

"A place like this? I live here."

"Oh, pardon me then."

"Yes, yes, enough with the introductions, can we get to the point already?" Yatsuhashi shouted rudely from behind us.

"Yatsuhashi's not very good at waiting," Benben said calmly from beside her.

"Am too!" Yatsuhashi protested.

"You feel it too, right Miss Jizo? The power giving rise to new tsukumogami and demanding a revolution where we tools take over the world! Do you want to join us?"

Narumi looked absolutely flabbergasted by Benben’s question. "What?" was all she could manage to say at first. Then she swallowed and looked between the two sisters. "I've got no desire to overthrow humans. I don't want Marisa to see me as her enemy."

"Don't be a coward! You're a tsukumogami like us, aren't you?"

"I'm not a tsukumogami, I'm a magician!" Narumi cried, looking a little incensed.

I was surprised to hear that. Could a Jizo statue become a magician? Maybe in a place like the Forest of Magic, where the very soil was supposedly filled with magical power, something like that was possible...

"Oh! Are you Marisa’s apprentice then?"

"No, it’s not like that. Sometimes we help each other out though. It was her who gave me this hat."

I tried to picture how that might have happened. Marisa didn't strike me as a particularly empathic individual, so I can't imagine her putting a hat on a statue out of kindness. I wouldn't say that around her though. Actually, now that I thought about it, maybe there was another side to Marisa beneath the reckless bravado that we didn't get to see. She had managed to befriend numerous youkai after all, and younger youkai in particular seemed to be especially drawn to her. Come to think of it, it had been a long time since I had last seen Rumia. I wondered how she was doing given the current ongoing incident. There's no way that Marisa would have let herself get eaten by Rumia if the youkai had become suddenly violent, right?

"...At any rate, I'm not interested in any revolution," Narumi continued. "But if you're looking for the source of this magical power I'd like to know what it is too. I can feel it like a constant itch on my skin. I don’t want to start rampaging around like the other youkai." As Narumi said that she looked up at the sky to the west with an unhappy expression.

"Magical power?" Renko asked. "So there really is something making roaming youkai aggressive and creating tsukumogami?"

"Yes. It's coming from the west, high up in the sky. I was thinking about going to tell Marisa about it. I would have expected her to have already noticed it, but she's not doing anything, so maybe she hasn't. The waves of magical power are getting stronger though, and it feels like something big is about to happen." Narumi tilted her head as she thought about it and her long earlobes dangled pendulously. Despite the rigid, stone-like nature of her posture, her ears at least looked really soft.

"Merry, do you see anything in the western sky?"

I looked. "No, not really."

"I knew it!" Yatsuhashi declared. "This human is useless! Come on, Sister. Leave them here, we can go find the source of this power on our own. It's to the west!"

"Wait! Hold on, Yatsuhashi." Benben pleaded, grabbing her sister by the shoulder. "This Jizo said the power's getting stronger, right? Good things come to those who wait, right?"

Yatsuhashi shrugged out of her grip. "You're being way too cautious. The early bird gets the worm!"

"Well, haste makes waste. And also if you go looking for trouble, you're sure to find it!"

"And you can't catch a tiger without entering its den! And um... seeing is believing! Or fortune favors the bold... or something! Whatever, I'm going to go see what's there even if you don't come with me!"

"Hey, I said wait!"

—And just like that our captors abandoned us, flying off into the night sky. Renko and I watched them go, standing in stunned silence for a moment. It was good to be free of their oversight, but I had to admit, being discarded as a useless tool by a couple of tsukumogami hurt a little.

"Did the Tsukumo sisters just abandon us?" I asked.

"Yeah, they did," my partner said after a bit.

"What should we do?"

"I suppose we could chase them?"

"No, I think you should definitely stop." Narumi interjected. "I have a bad feeling about whatever is going on here."

"Oh? Why’s that?"

"I don't know how to explain it, but this just feels dangerous. I'm going to go talk to Marisa about it." Saying that, Narumi turned and disappeared into the forest without another word, abandoning us just as the Tsukumo sisters had.

There was a moment of silence as Renko, Genji and I all stared at each other.

"Everybody's gone," he observed. "What now?"

"Well, if we stay out any later we're going to get a headbutt from Keine," I mused. "Let's head back, Renko."

"...Well if you can't see anything then I suppose we may as well."

"Oh? It's rare to hear you being so reasonable, Renko."

"It's not my style to follow someone else's lead. Let’s regroup and think about our next move."

In other words, Yatsuhashi had already stolen all of Renko's lines. She let out a defeated sigh as Genji lifted into the air and turned back towards the village. Maybe being discarded by a tsukumogami wasn't such a bad thing in the midst of an uprising of tools.